Pakistan Blog Awards 2011 – Review

Thanks to my friend Shahzad Afzal, whose blog (PakistanProbe) was nominated, I got the opportunity to attend as a guest at the Pakistan Blog Awards 2011, held on Friday Dec. 23 at the Regent Plaza Hotel in Karachi. Now this is the first time I was attending the Blog Awards and being a blogger myself I had a few expectations from the event. 

The program started at 7:30 PM sharp. The first thing that I noticed was that a team of young people was organizing and managing the event, which is always refreshing. The entry checking to the main hall was organized well and upon entering the hall guys from Djuice presented you with some pretty colorful rubber wrist bands. Now in the hall there was a great opportunity for a young blogger like me to meet gurus of blogging and learn new tricks. I took my seat on the table right behind the table occupied by Faisal Qureshi of News One and his friends from the media. Joining me on the table were Ali Hafeez Azmat - who is a self-proclaimed micro blogger, one boy who was running some sports blog and another marketing guy (Sorry for not remembering your names guys J you can’t blame me for not remembering names when people don’t share business cards).

The event kicked off with the recitation from the holy Quran and then kids from Garage School presented a musical tableau showing the culture of each province of Pakistan.

For me the real shame was when Kashmir was presented in front of same media people whose channels were showing Kashmir either divided or part of India.

The event was unprofessionally hosted by Rabia Gharib, you can Google her for more info.

There were a small bunch of people known to her and she was constantly referring to them rather than involving the remaining 200 guests present in the hall. I didn’t see anything special in her hosting and failed to understand why the organizers were begging her to host it in the first place, (lolx) people are stubborn what can I say. To be really critical, and this is for the betterment of such events in the future, more participation of the guests and nominees would really help the blogging community to get to know each other better.

The award giving ceremony was a total non-rehearsed event. It was like there was no effort made to make it a highlight of the night. The announcements, the visuals nothing made sense. And please! It’s not just my opinion, this opinion echoed across the hall. After watching Oscars year after year I can safely say that these people who are always putting their hands up like a little kid saying “me, me, me” when it comes to writing about award giving ceremonies, they have learned nothing. How about taking a small interview or giving a small intro about the winners, as Sherlock Holmes used to say, “Its elementary dear Watson”. How about showing a screen shot of the winning blog, oh come-on people! how difficult was it.

Imran Khan! J Yes guys thanks to King Khan for saving the day and yes I am an Imran Khan fan. The PTI chairman made a surprised guest appearance in the show.

It was refreshing to see a political party leader only followed by two people rather than the heard of sheep, which is a common sight painted in our political canvas. Although there are people out on the Blogging Street criticizing the little speech made by Imran in which he asked the audience to make the Karachi Jalsa a success and taking the name Tsunami again and again giving minor heart attacks to the already poor scared people of Karachi. I say there is no harm in that because PTI is the political party at the forefront of the Tech/blogging revolution in Pakistan. The PTI media team is the trendsetter in the tech-less Pakistani political house. Nowadays we see politicians popping up on Facebook and Twitter with their own pages and tweets, something that PTI started way before it became a trend. So I think it was justified to invite Imran and then for him to ask for people’s support because the major promotion campaign of the PTI Karachi Jalsa was run on the internet by the bloggers.

The night was wrapped up by a pathetic attempt by Sami Shah, a guy whose looks are funnier than his words, at standup comedy.

You know when you are sitting in the audience, listening to a standup comedian and you are saying to yourself, “What are they laughing at, he’s not even funny, it’s racist joke”, yes people this was my reaction to Sami Shah’s tear shedding jokes. Another tip to all you good people reading this article, don’t laugh at a joke just because the friends of the comedian are sitting in the table in front of you and are going banana’s over his every spoken word, to you my advice would be “to have some standards and don’t follow the crowd”.  To Sami Shah, my dear friend you write way better and way funnier than this attempt to embarrass your fans; I am a fan of Sami Shah the writer/ blogger not the stand up comedian. And Pleeeeease! When you can’t think of any funny stuff don’t start cracking jokes on Maulana Fazal-Ur-Rehman or the fact that we are a Porn loving nation, we are already embarrassed and depressed of these two soiled facts, please don’t rub it in as jokes, it hurts :/.

At the end of the function there were some freebies given to the attendees, the Ghazal session was a good touch, the singing of national anthem is always a joy and a moment of pride and the food was yummy too ;). So with my tummy full, I end this review of the 2^nd Pakistan Blog Awards 2011, I hope that the next event will be memorable not because of the appearance of any political or showbiz personality but by the professionalism of the organizing community and the participation of the blogging community in the event. Must appreciate the sponsors especially PCWorld Pakistan and Google for making the event happen the idea is brilliant but the execution needs some tuning. Till next time Allah Hafiz J.

Farhad Majeed

Pictures Source:

1. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2597245604855.2120503.1066176510&type=3
2. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=201235093301645&set=a.201227839969037.47166.174652589293229&type=3
3. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=201236339968187&set=a.201227839969037.47166.174652589293229&type=3
4. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=201239023301252&set=a.201227839969037.47166.174652589293229&type=3
5. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=201230106635477&set=a.201227839969037.47166.174652589293229&type=3